What's appropriate?

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RebeccaHamilton
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What's appropriate?

Post by RebeccaHamilton » June 25th, 2010, 9:03 pm

I'm working with a reputable editor on my novel and I'm not sure what is appropriate in regards to mentioning her in the query. Name-dropping I think would be tacky, and at the same time it seems impolite not to credit her for the work she did. Of course I'd mention her in my thank you's, should I ever get published, but what about in the query?

I plan to ask her what she prefers, when the time comes, but I'm also curious how it would be seen from an agent stand-point.

Haven't been able to find any resources in regards to this yet. I think I read in a book once not to "name-drop", but it was used in a different context. It has me wondering if it's tacky to mention your editor, or rude not to.

Thoughts?

UPDATE:
Note for anyone else looking for an answer:
I spoke to Nathan and he replied. The verdict is, (in Nathan's case) leave it out. It won't be considered rude to the editor, and from his response it looks like only seen as trying to impress an agent (that part I don't get, but I'm glad he was upfront about it because I don't think anyone wants to come across that way)
Last edited by RebeccaHamilton on June 26th, 2010, 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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fivecats
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Re: What's appropriate?

Post by fivecats » June 26th, 2010, 1:07 am

You only identify her as your "editor." Is she a friend? A paid editor you hired? A critique partner? An editor at a publishing house?

It makes a difference: if it's an editor with a publishing house, by all means, mention her. If it's someone you hired or a friend/critique partner, don't.

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RebeccaHamilton
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Joined: June 9th, 2010, 1:55 pm
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Re: What's appropriate?

Post by RebeccaHamilton » June 26th, 2010, 8:51 am

She has been an editor for 28 years. Not a friend, doesn't work for a publishing house.

What happened was, I hired her brother initially (Sol Stein--yes THE Sol Stein, since people always ask me this.). He helped me with my first chapters and recommended me to work with his sister, Toby Stein. He forgot to include her email, but he had forwarded his critique to her along with the email he sent me, and she saw he hadn't included contact information, so she contacted me, and we've been working together since.

Yes, I have critique partners (I wouldn't mention them on a query. That I know). And yes, I do have a friend that are editors that have offered to look at my work, but I haven't yet because these are people who have connections and I want to make sure the manuscript is in good shape before I show it to him. (And if he did look it over, since he's only a friend I wouldn't mention him either)

When it comes to this though, I'm not sure whether it's' appropriate to mention or not. I feel like I if I mention my editor, that might qualify as name dropping. (Obviously I'm not going to mention her brother, since he only critiqued my first chapter) At the same time, I think it's rude not to mention someone whose given you hours of their time. I know I can mention her in my thank you's, I'm just not sure if it's polite/impolite or appropriate/inappropriate to mention her in the query.

And I'm not sure about how a publishing house agent would make a difference. You can pay for critiques from some publishing house agents. I also had an offer for publication from a very, very, small pub. house, and they would have edited my novel also (and I would have kept rights to my book) so I could have gotten a free edit from a publishing house if I wanted anyway lol

Some things just seem to be gray. I'll ask her what she thinks, too.

RebeccaHamilton
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Joined: June 9th, 2010, 1:55 pm
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Re: What's appropriate?

Post by RebeccaHamilton » June 26th, 2010, 8:54 am

She has been an editor for 28 years. Not a friend, doesn't work for a publishing house.

What happened was, I hired her brother initially (Sol Stein--yes THE Sol Stein, since people always ask me this.). He helped me with my first chapters and recommended me to work with his sister, Toby Stein. He forgot to include her email, but he had forwarded his critique to her along with the email he sent me, and she saw he hadn't included contact information, so she contacted me, and we've been working together since.

Yes, I have critique partners (I wouldn't mention them on a query. That I know). And yes, I do have a friend that is an editor that has offered to look at my work, but I haven't shared yet because he has connections and I want to make sure the manuscript is in good shape before I show it to him. (on the very very very off chance he'd offer to share it with the people he knows--I'd NEVER ask him to do that though) And if he did look it over, since he's only a friend, I wouldn't mention him either.

When it comes to this though, I'm not sure whether it's' appropriate to mention or not. I feel like I if I mention my editor, that might qualify as name dropping. (Obviously I'm not going to mention her brother, since he only critiqued my first chapter after I paid him lol) At the same time, I think it's rude not to mention someone whose given you hours of their time. I know I can mention her in my thank you's, I'm just not sure if it's polite/impolite or appropriate/inappropriate to mention her in the query.

And I'm not sure about how a publishing house agent would make a difference. You can pay for critiques from some publishing house agents. I also had an offer for publication from a very, very, small pub. house, and they would have edited my novel also (and I would have kept rights to my book) so I could have gotten a free edit from a publishing house if I wanted anyway lol. (I turned it down because they found me, I hadn't queried them, and my book wasn't ready yet. I really want to at least try to get my dream agent before signing up to such a small pub. house)

Some things just seem to be gray. I'll ask her what she thinks, too.

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